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Mega Mash
|description = Help guide our 7 heroes through the perils in this corrupted game world!}} Mega Mash is an NES game released on September 30, 2011. The game is unique in the fact that each level is a combination of several levels all with a different theme and gameplay. This game was made a distributable game on March 14th, 2012, and was one of launch titles for the iPhone Nitrome Touchy, released on October 31st 2012 for iPhone and November 21st 2012 for Android. ---- Controls Flash Carrot Story Left and right arrow keys - Move Up arrow key - Jump Space bar - Pick up or drop off a crate Balloon Left and right arrow keys - Move Up arrow key - Tap to ascend Ninja Left and right arrow keys - Move Up arrow key - Jump Space - Fire ninja star *Hold space and tap an arrow key to move in that direction on a ninja rope Nitrometris Left and right arrow keys - Move Down arrow key - Speed up / Space/Up - Rotate Smash Left and right arrow keys - Move Space - Shoot Blast Man Joe Arrow keys - Move Space bar - Plant a bomb Xolstar 3 Arrow keys - Move Space bar - Shoot bullets Nitrome Touchy In the Nitrome Touchy version of Mega Mash, the player's controler is a simple controller with a d-pad on the left side, and two orange buttons on the right side - the same setup as Double Edged's Nitrome Touchy controller. This controller remains the same for all games, except that the art in the background changes when the player enters a game. Descriptive Buttons: D-pad, button one, button two Usage: As Mega Mash has different controls for each game, it is possible that some buttons for some games will not be used. Regardless, controls will be different for each game. Below is the possible control setup for each game: :Carrot Story: The left and right arm of the D-pad will likely be used for movement, while it is possible that the upper arm of the D-pad will cause Fluffykins to jump. As only one arm of the D-pad can be pressed at a time, pressing to the upper arm to jump will be impractical as it prevents the level from moving while jumping (most of the time). Because of this, likely one of the two buttons will be used for jumping, while another button will be used for firing fireballs in Super Mode. The art for the each controller will change depending on the game entered. :Xolstar 3: It is probably the d-pad will be used for movement of the Xolstar, each arm of the d-pad when pressed moving the ship in that direction, while one of the two buttons will be used for firing the laser. :Blast-Man Joe: The d-pad will probably be the control selected for movement, each arm when pressed moving the player in that direction. One of the two buttons when pressed will cause the player to place a bomb, if this setup is picked. :Smash: The d-pad will likely be used for movement, the left and right arm using the d-pad in the picked direction. One of the two buttons will probably be picked to fire the lasers of Smash when it is in super mode. :Nitrometris: Either pressing a left or right arm of the d-pad will flip the Nitrometris in the picked direction. Otherwise, one of the buttons will probably move the Nitrometris one way and the other button the other way, possibly. It is also possible pressing any button will move the Nitrometris clockwise or counter-clockwise, and there will be no other choice. :Balloon: Similar to Carrot Story, the left and right arms of the d-pad will likely be used for movement, while either one of the circle buttons or the upper arm of the d-pad will cause the Balloon to move up. :Ninja: The d-pad's left and right arms will probably move Takeshi left and right, respectively. Either the upper arm of the d-pad or one of the circle buttons will be used for jumping. One of the circle buttons will also probably used to fire a ninja star, holding on to the button causing a ninja rope to possibly be made. Condensed In the Nitrome Touchy version of Mega Mash, the player's smartphone is a simple controller with a d-pad on the left side, and two orange buttons on the right side - the same setup as Double Edged's Nitrome Touchy controller. This controller remains the same for all games, except that the art in the background changes when the player enters a game. Smash :D-pad left/right - move paddle :Circle button 1 - fire lasers (super mode) Xolstar 3 :D-pad up/down/left/right - move :Circle button 1 or 2 - fire Blast-Man Joe :D-pad up/down/left/right - move :Circle button 1 or 2 - drop bomb Nitrometris :D-pad down/left/right - move around :Circle button 1 - rotate Carrot Story :D-pad left/right - move :D-pad up - jump :Circle button 1 - pick up or drop boxes :Circle button 2 - shoot fireball (super mode), jump Balloon :D-pad left/right/down - move :D-pad up - move up Ninja :D-pad left/right - move, jump off walls :Circle button 1 - fire ninja star or rope :Circle button 2 - jump :D-pad up - move up ninja rope Levels Mega Mash has 20 levels. When on the menu, players can pick between 7 games to play, although each game leads to the same level select and to the same levels. In each level of Mega Mash, the player has to reach the goal in the level, which will allow them to progress to the next level. Throughout the levels, the player will be able to pass through corruption rifts in the damaged level that connect different games. Objects that pass through these rifts will usually be reconfigured into their counterpart in the other game. Level 1 Level 1 starts off with Carrot Story as it jumps from platform to platform. Then the player goes off to Xolstar 3 then you back to Carrot Story to win. Level 2 Level 2 goes from Carrot Story to Xolstar then adds Blastman Joe to the mix. Level 3 Level 4 Level 5 Level 6 Level 7 Level 8 Level 9 Level 10 Level 11 Level 12 Level 13 Level 14 Level 15 Level 16 Level 17 Level 18 Level 19 Level 20 Ending Games In Mega Mash, all seven games are mixed into a single, 20 level game. The reason for this is mostly unknown, but seems to result from damage to the game cartridge. *'Carrot Story' - Help Fluffykins cross the Land of Carrots and defeat the Moo King! *'Balloon' - Join Balloon on this journey across the World of Air. *'Ninja' - Join Ninja as he tries to destroy Oni Yakuza! *'Nitrometris' *'Smash' *'Blast-Man Joe' *'Xolstar 3' Enemies All enemies damage the main character on contact or by shooting hazards. Ghosts, missiles, venus fly traps and red birds are in Carrot Story. Simian units and mines are in Ninja. Space mosquitoes, space jellyfish, and UFOs are in Xolstar 3. Blast-Man Joe is pursued by fire enemies. Hazards As the ninja there are Lasers which damage on touch and Turrets that follow him, firing as they go. As Fluffykins there is Quicksand which also damages on touch. extending beyond the top of any given nitrometris game which your piece resets the Nitrometris part of the game and detracts a life. Crusher Blocks descend and rise in Blast-Man Joe, Carrot Story, and Balloon. Hitting Joe with his own explosion in Blast-Man Joe hurts the player. Pick ups :Main article: Pick ups (Mega Mash) Pick Ups that grant points appear often in level. Super pick ups in the game add a different power to several of the different game aspects. Fluffykins can shoot fireballs, the Xolstar can fire five lasers at once and gains a shield, and Smash gains guns on the paddle. Characters :Main article: Characters (Mega Mash) The characters in the game transform as the player moves between worlds, so they are essentially the same character throughout, albeit in different forms. There is Fluffykins (in Carrot Story), Takeshi (in ninja), Smash & Faceball in the game Smash, Nitrometris in the game Nitrometris, the Balloon in the game Balloon, the Xolstar (in Xolstar 3), and Blast-Man Joe in the game Blast-Man Joe. Interactive objects Objects like Blocks and Spring Blocks can be interacted with the player, and used to navigate through levels. There are several helpful objects throughout the game. Bosses :Main article: Bosses (Mega Mash) There are two bosses, one encountered halfway through the game and the one more encountered on the final level. Unlike many games, they are more complex than simple enemies, and are fought throughout multiple games. They must be defeated to progress through the game. Glitches Mega Mash is known for the notorious amount of glitches in it. In the blog post announcing Mega Mash had been released, Nitrome said several glitches were still intact. Below are some of them. Lost in cartridge glitch On level three, when the player turns into the ninja for the first time, the top game will disappear, but the player can wall jump up there. The player can't get back into Blast-Man Joe, but they can run around in the black cartridge glitch. The player cannot see him/herself either. Strangely, since there's no game within that area, the controls act as if the game within that area is a platform game. Spring glitch In Carrot Story, if two boxes are put on top of each other on springs, the springs will glitch. This was fixed. Push glitch In some parts of Carrot Story, the player may be pushed suddenly in one direction. This "push" happens suddenly and cannot be moved against. The player can avoid the glitch by staying completely still. Incompleteable level In some cases, the player will be forced to kill him/herself in order to complete the level, as some parts of some level cannot be completed if the player goes to a certain spot and has to go back, but can't, or cannot progress any further. This bug has been fixed. Immediate game over Sometimes, when the player completes level three, a level failed-screen will be shown. This also may happen three seconds into level four. Also, this may happen on other stages, such as on level eight. Super power up glitch A variation of the uncompleteable level glitch. In some parts of the level, the player may need a super power up to progress further in the level. However, if they die past a certain spot, they will respawn in a certain area, but without being in the super power up state. At this point, the super power up cannot be obtained. In some cases, the level is impossible to complete, as the player needs the super power up, and so the player is forced to restart the level completely. This was fixed. Level 18 glitch This glitch caused Mega Mash to be uncompleteable. On level 18, the flagpole was not positioned over a stable platform. The flagpole is instead positioned over the orange sky in the Ninja area. Because the flagpole was not on a stable platform, it could not be activated. Also, if the player stood directly on the brown block, they would eventually fall through the block into a void below. The player would not die, as they had not lost all their hearts, and the game had not been programmed to count falling into the black void as death. Thus, the player is infinitely falling. They could move horizontally, but not get back up. This glitch is one of the most infamous Nitrome glitches, and was fixed by Nitrome on Monday, October 3rd. Midair glitch Like some other games, if you run too fast on the edge of a platform, the player will stay in midair. Ghosts through a Game barrier glitch On level 2, if the player is careful enough not to kill the ghost near the barrier of Carrot Story and Xolstar 3, if the Green Ghost gets through the barrier, no sprite would appear but a red translucent box crawling at the edge. Xolstar-3-red-block.JPG|The glitch Wall slide glitches If the player is wall sliding with Takeshi while in Ninja, and the game changes, a number of things can happen. Carrot Story When Takeshi is wall sliding in Ninja, and it changes into Carrot Story, the rabbit will be sliding against the wall. Blast-Man Joe If the player is wall sliding and the game changes to Blast-Man Joe while the ninja is where a wall should be, the player will be seen inside the wall, and will immediately die. Wall glitch.png Dead space glitch If the player is where the black empty space should be when the game changes, they will be trapped in it and cannot be seen. The only control that works is jump, and the jumping sound will be heard. Nothing else works (meaning the player has to restart the level). Dead space glitch.png Ninja star glitch If the player throws a ninja star while in Ninja and the game changes, the ninja star will still be there. Ninja star glitch.png Bomb glitch If the player places a bomb while in Blast-Man Joe and the game changes, the bomb will disappear, but the blast will still happen in the normal amount of seconds (still harming the player if they touch it). Bomb glitch.png Level completion glitch When a level is completed in Carrot Story, the player can still move around and die. Level re-enter glitch Sometimes if the player starts the game and clicks any level, they will be taken to level one instead of the level that they have selected. However, the player's progress still exists, and the player just needs to return to the main menu and select the level they want once more. Nitrome Touchy version Mega Mash is included as a Nitrome Touchy gameNitrome Touchy site: Games updated October 19, 2012. When the player goes into another game world, the controller's art will change as well. This game was one of the 10 launch titles for the iPhone Nitrome Touchy, this game launched on October 31st 2012 for the app, and November 21st 2012 for Android. File:Megamash_pic1.jpg|Playing Mega Mash on the Nitrome Touchy Megamash pic2.jpg|Fullscreen Mega_Mash_Front_Screen.png|The front screen Mega_Mash_Front_Screen_Two.png|The main screen Mega_Mash_Level_Select.png|The level select screen Mega_Mash_Controls_Carrot_Story.png|The controls for Carrot Story Mega_Mash_Controls_Xolstar.png|the controls for Xolstar 3 Mega_Mash_Controls_Ninja.png|The controls for Ninja Mega_Mash_Controls_Blast_Man_Joe.png|The controls for Blast-Man Joe Mega_Mash_Error.png|The error screen seen in black no-cartridge areas Mega_Mash_Game_Over.png|The game over screen Mega_Mash_Level_Complete.png|The level complete screen Mega_Mash_Scores.png|The scores screen Mega_Mash_Help_Balloon.png|The help screen for Balloon Mega_Mash_Help_Blast_Man_Joe.png|The help screen for Blast-Man Joe Mega_Mash_Help_Carrot_Story.png|The help screen for Carrot Story Mega_Mash_Help_Ninja.png|The help screen for Ninja Mega_Mash_Help_Nitrometris.png|The help screen for Nitrometris Mega_Mash_Help_Smash.png|The help screen for Smash Mega_Mash_Help_Xolstar.png|The help screen for Xolstar 3 Mega_Mash_Help_Interactive_Objects_and_Pick_Ups.png|The help screen for pick ups and interactive objects Mega_Mash_Credits.png|The credits Theme Mega Mash is themed around the player playing a broken, glitchy NES game cartridge. This is first presented in the startup, which shows the game being put into the Enjoyment System, but resulting in a glitchy title screen. The cartridge is then removed, and sounds of beating or tampering are heard. The game cartridge (bottom half now gone) is then re-inserted into the system, which plays the game, but causes it to billow smoke. Also, when the player clicks the Play button to go to the level select screen, the game screen fills up with the words "ERROR...", and then turns black with the words "Cartridge Read Error." Continuing with the fictional story, the NES cartridge is apparently supposed to play seven different games, but due to the cartridge being broken and glitchy all the games have combined into one. White sparkling lines represent where the different games have "mashed" together within the levels, and Nitrome forces the player to use this mechanic of switching between games to have the player progress through the levels. Beta elements Pre-previews Images of Ninja and Balloon appeared in the NES Promo Posters. On the first poster, an image of Balloon and Ninja appear. The Ninja image lacks the grating seen in the final game, the guard also looks different. The Balloon in the Balloon image lacks a face, and red and green pads are present, something not seen in the final release version of Mega Mash. The pink platforms are also seen only once in the game. Seen in the NES skin is what is perhaps a beta version of Nitrometris, or a parody of another game. File:Nes2.jpg|Promotional Poster 1 File:Nes3.jpg|Promotional Poster 2 Previews When Mega Mash was released, an image for each game was previewed. All these preview images possibly mean that Mega Mash was originally going to be seven games in one game, each game having a separate set of levels. It is possible that making all the levels would be difficult, and time consuming, which possibly lead to twenty levels being a mix of the seven games. Almost each preview image of a level seen did not make it into the game. In the Balloon image (see gallery above), Balloon is seen approaching a ball on a chain, which is near a Spike Head. Spike Heads did not make it into the game, also, a Ball on Chain in that area was never encountered. The Blast-Man Joe image had Joe being able to place multiple Bombs at once. Mosquitoes were also enemies, but cut from the game and possible replaced with mice. The Nitrome Tetris level was also not seen in the game, neither was the Smash level. The Carrot Story, Ninja, and Xolstar 3 levels did however make it into the game. Mega Mash may have went into development in November, when the Nitrome Enjoyment System was revealed. File:Megamash-1.gif|The Balloon preview image Post-release Unused enemy sprites still remain the game. The sprite of the Hot Air mines still remain in the game's coding, along with that of the ball on chain (which was seen in a preview image). Three unused enemies are also present: a white sphere, fat alien, and alien fly; from their appearance it is thought they are from Xolstar 3. A sprite of a snake also exists, thought to be from Blast-Man Joe. The alien fly and fat alien apparently were to help each other, as a .gif exists of the fly rotating around the fat alien. Gallery MegaMash-FatAlien.png|The fat alien MegaMash-Larva.png|The alien fly MegaMash-Snake.png|The snake MegaMash-Mine1.png|The mine, calm, frame one MegaMash-Mine2.png|The mine, calm, frame two MegaMash-Mine3.png|The mine, angry, frame one MrgaMash-Mine4.png|The mine, angry, frame two MegaMash-WhiteSphere.png|The white sphere Reviews Mega Mash has been well received by critics, the most praised elements of the game being the unique game element of going between different games and how well Mega Mash simulates retro gaming. Chris Donlan of Edge Magazine praised the game for its uniqueness and retro feeling ("how warm and familiar it all feels."), and although bringing up that the core idea had been done before, he noted how Mega Mash stands out in the genre for its "sophistication, and such an unusual level of clear-headed intelligence." The game was praised by Mike Fahey of Kotaku for "It's a gorgeous symphony of old school gaming goodness, all at once.". Cassandra Khaw of IndieGames.com noted that although the game wasn't "particularly groundbreaking", she still praised the game for its "nifty idea". John Bardinelli praised many aspects of the game, notably the mix of many different genres in one game, and the integration of puzzles across multiple games; he ended his review stating "Creative, good-looking, and retro enough to make even the most nostalgic of gamers shed a tear. Mega Mash is one glitchy game cartridge you won't mind firing up." Awards |Flash Gaming Summit |2012 |The Mochis |Best Action Game | Nitrome blog: - Into The Mochis Finals! |} Gallery File:Featured Mega Mash.jpg|An Advertisement for Mega Mash as it appeared in the Ad section of Nitrome.com 2.0 File:Mega_Mash.jpg|The logo as seen on slider on the front page of Nitrome.com File:Mega Mash New Logo.jpg|An image for the game as seen on the front page, in the section which shows the two big images of the two latest games Trivia * Several of the games seem to be based on several old games from 1980 and 1970. **Carrot Story is based on the Mario series of games, but resembles Super Mario Bros. 2 more. ***The title and main character also strongly resemble Cave Story. **Smash is based on Breakout, a Pong like game where the player smashes blocks. ***The power-up for this game resembles laser capsules from Arkanoid, and the paddle resembles Vaus from the same game. **Nitrometris is obviously based off Tetris. ** Blast-man Joe is based off of Bomberman. **Insectica Prime is perhaps based on Metroid Prime. *Other games are based off already existing Nitrome games. **Ninja is a reference to Final Ninja. **Balloon is a reference to Hot Air. * When Fluffykins jumps up and dies, he can land on a enemy and still can kill it. *The sound of the lightning bolt impacting the word "Mega Mash" - heard during the opening of Mega Mash and prior the menu coming up - is heard upon collection of the NES in Super Stock Take. *The beginning of the music played during the game's level sounds a little like "Another Winter" by Anamanaguchi. Notes }} es:Mega Mash Category:Nitrome Enjoyment System Category:Games Category:Beta Category:Action games Category:Nitrome Touchy games Category:2011 games Category:Music by Dave Cowen Category:Programming by Chris Burt-Brown Category:Level design by Jonathan Annal Category:Level design by Jay Smith Category:Art by Jay Smith Category:Browser games Category:Level-based games Category:Distributable games